The Long Winter

I'm rereading the Little House books right now, as a way to unwind after the mental stress of finals and school.

I just finished The Long Winter.

I love all the books in the series, except Farmer Boy, which I've never read, or only read part of, because it's just about Almanzo's life. And only a little bit of it. Whatever.

I know there are issues with the authenticity of the books, otherwise they wouldn't be labeled as fiction, right? Plus, how much influence did her daughter have, who was anti-Commie and these were published in the late 30s and early 40s... blah blah.

I didn't know that for a long time, and I still don't know the whole story.

But knowing bits of it explains the sheer insanity of the people of De Smet in The Long Winter.

Almanzo Wilder (Laura's future hubs, remember) is determined to save his seed wheat for the next spring. That means not selling it to the starving townspeople. That means risking his and another person's neck to buy somebody else's seed wheat 20 miles from town, in crazy-ass blizzard season. The person makes the same arguments Almanzo's been making the whole book. Almanzo says you can't plant money, but damn, man, I know the winter won't last forever.

And I don't know why the townspeople didn't pool their resources early on. Why did they all freeze in their own houses when they could have stayed in the hotel or a few other buildings all winter, sharing fuel and food? There couldn't have been that many people there. It just hurt my head - we weren't talking about a small town in the 1980s, this is small town's first winter in the 1880s. I thought in the good ol' days, everybody helped everybody else out.

But no, apparently they do not. They are obsessed with not being in debt to one another. Like over nails. (Little House on the Prairie.)

Then there's the racism, which I can explain, so while I may not like it, it at least makes sense. Not like this suicidal winter where they all hid from each other instead of sharing. One man bought up all the fuel. Why didn't people stay at his house?

Pa went over to the Wilder's. They had lots of food, a nice fire, a warm place. Why couldn't he bring his family over for the day? I don't get it. I thought people "visited" in the days before the evil TV took over.

I love this book, don't get me wrong, it just leaves me scratching my head.

And oh-so-gratfeul for the modern world, no matter how fucked up it may be.


ETA: I'm rereading this as well. The introduction, which described the Ingalls' previous ways of life as subsistence probably explains why they're so hesitant to depend on others. It just seems so damn weird to me, is all. I can handle twisting hay to make "logs", but not independence to the point of emaciation. Ok, bad example. But I mean, the rest of the trappings of their life are fascinating, and usually easy to understand. This is not.

Another thing that is not, that started in the very first book, is the stoic nature required of the girls. We meet Laura as four-year-old. Who is expected not to cry. In On the Banks of Plum Creek, when the neighbor's girl takes her doll, she is told "For shame!" when she cries. Fuck that noise. Yeah, I hate little kid tantrums as much as the next person, but tears? Dammit, I still cry. A lot. (Which may have something to do with medications and the constant changing, but still.) Sometimes, I don't know why I cry. My dad got mad at my mom when she cried. I am so glad his poisonous ideas are out of here.

How the hell can it be bad to cry? Or a sign of immaturity?

It's bad to repress your feelings.

Then again, she grew up in the Victorian era, and some of what they say about them is true.

ETA yet again: It seems we reach out quicker in our more fucked up disconnected modern age. Our heater is possessed and will cost 2 grand to fix. My mom has been sick all semester, so yeah right.

The church, which she hasn't been to in a long-ass time, but her friend works (or volunteers there), brought by a get-well card and this oh-so-warm blankie. Not much, but still.

When my family was turned upside down by my cousins' moving in with us and my bad health (which meant smaller paychecks for the mom), we got plenty of food and help from the crisis center and the church and PEOPLE.

And just last weekend, Uncle Danny chopped wood (this electric chopping thing on his trailer) on a friend's property. Mom kept trying to pay him, he refused, and I finally took the money and put it in her purse.

People still give a damn about other people's well being, despite the collapse of society and family and all that jazz.

Yes, Almanzo and Cap risked their lives for the town, but why weren't they pooling their resources beforehand? What was the point of living in town, as Laura asked frequently, if they were even more isolated than they would be on the claim?

Some early early cuteness

more animals

Yes, I got an A+ in Literary Heritage Honors. This was more reading than writing, but we still wrote. I had 14 journals, and 2 short essays each for the midterm and final.

And yet, this is all I have.

If you've seen my comic blog, well, it's not much better.

Of course, tired, watching Good Eats, blah blah, cute animals, zzz

Today's Bizarro made me SOL -

Snort out Loud. (Not as catchy, but it's the truth.)

The comic:




Pardon My Planet also made me snort out loud.



It would be lying to say this, but when I saw today's Lockhorns, I said to myself, "Dude! We talked about Cambrian in science! And I remember it! I'm a genius!"



One last thing - the song of the moment is "Teri Kurti Sexy" from the Bollywood movie Vaada. (No, I have not seen it.)

Since I asked to listen to Becky's music earlier (Britney's new album), I thought she wouldn't mind. But she does.

But you don't!

The rest of my grades are up!

It makes up for the lack of new Daily Show and unseen Good Eats.

But I'm watching a Christmas episode of Spongebob, right after a ripped-off It's A Wonderful Life iCarly plot.


The rest of my grades are up.

They're UNOFFICIAL, I must remember that, but still. I doubt they'll change.

Anthropology - A+ Yay! Expected, I had a 100 going into the final. Forgot or didn't remember that she was doing the plus/minus thing.

English - A+ Yay yay yay! I was unsure, I'm always unsure, the essays for my final sucked majorly. But A+? Yes!

Physical Geology - B+ but we knew that.

French - A! YES! I was so worried about that, I thought I'd get another B this semester. I checked my grades on a whim tonight and shouted something like "I got an A in French!" when I saw that, but it was so loud and high pitched, I don't know what I said.

History - still an A. That's one teacher who should have done the plus/minus. Or at least the plus, since I saw my grade the other week and it was a 100.

You know what this means? Unless my mom or dad wins the lottery, they're not taking away my money for another semester or so.

My science grade is up!

Well, the "unofficial grade" is up.

Because of a lot of blah blah, I probably won't see the official ones for a month.

So if I keep checking the unofficial grades before they become official, I can see my grades.

And I have a B plus in science! It all worked out! Oh thank god I am finally done good night.

And an A in History, but I knew that.

No one else has grades up.

Today is Comics Day.

'Cause, so far, two comics have made me react in a pleasant way.

The second one is today's Rhymes with Orange:



I think I've said this before, but it bears repeating (that looks wrong but sounds right and according to the google, is right.), I am a sucker for an Oedipus joke.

Notice I did not say an Oedipal joke. If it featured regular characters in love with their mothers (Momma), that's not what I find funny. No, no. It has to have Oedipus himself. Or the T. Rex version. Whatevs.

That being said, this is not what I mean. (Today's One Big Happy)



Just a kid not getting it. And I guess they made the same joke as RwO - Oedipus Rex/Oedipus the T Rex and Oedipus who Wrecks things. This one is probably for the best, I don't need Oedipal anything in One Big Happy. I like that comic. I also like Sally Forth. Francesco Marciuliano needs to hear that, especially since I probably won't buy the calendar. What, I only care about 2 of the months! I'm sorry!

Aww... too cute.

Today's Mutts

Problem taken care of!

So switching from an Honors section to the regular class is hard work, but at least I'll get a higher grade than a C+. I better. For all that stress.

Anyways, it was so fast!

I called the registrar this morning to see if they remembered me, and they did, and told me to call the College of Arts and Sciences and gave me a name. I called and asked for that name and talked to that person. She didn't sound very happy and told me that it was kinda late for this thing. But I was respectful, and said that I knew, and that I had explained everything, extenuating circumstances, blah blah blah.

She said she'd call me up after the signature was on the paper and it was faxed over.

And then the worry. What if they decided not to sign it and I got a C+ in a class? Oh man, that would suck.

About an hour after I called them, she called me. While I was the phone, not jumping up and down because I didn't sleep but drifted for a couple hours, I got a phone call and message from the registrar's office telling me what this woman was telling me - I was out of the Honor's section and I could see the proof! A quick e-mail to my professor and now I shall wait for his reply.

As for my grades, I don't know when I'll see them. I did the SETEs, so I should see them early, and somebody at the Bursar's office told me I could sign a release to see them early without paying the rental prepayment, but when I got there, the answer was "huh? we never said that."

But I will know if the grade in science is over a C+ if my professor e-mails me back.


This morning, just before 5, the fire alarm went off. The second time this semester. The first time, the sun was still up, other places were open, so I went to another building.

This time I froze. After I was back in my overheated room (how do they that?), I tried to sleep, but couldn't really. I did hit on this brilliant idea. The lies you tell your children about Santa are ok (when you're found out - not before!), because they're make-believe. At the age we believe in Santa, make believe is the shiznit.

This was genius, I swear. I was like Stephen Colbert facing the camera, opening and closing his hand, saying "X(parenting award) please."

Speaking of the Colbert Report, a recent bit bugged me. I've never liked the Tek Jansen or whatever the animated thing is called, but that's not it. But there was a thing about atheist Christmas cards, and he read a mocked up atheist family letter. It bugged me, because dude, most atheists/agnostics(me) don't spend our time thinking about how we don't believe in a god or gods. We think about school or work or LIFE IN GENERAL.

And then this thing on the Daily Show REALLY pissed me off. A Planned Parenthood is offering giftcards, and naturally, they're only for abortions, because that's ALL PP does. They don't do pelvic exams, or prescribe BC, or do pap smears, or a thousand other reproductive issues that women have to deal with. Really pissed me off. A sour note.

Of course, Monday's bit on Canada's crisis was awesome, with Sam Bee as Canada, dependent on Britain (John Oliver), and India (Aasif Mandvi) telling her to rebel. It was hilarious.

And last night, Stephen had a Nixmas tree, because Nixon is totally Santa! Both have a list of who's naughty and nice and have little helpers and break into places... ohmigod, to die for funny.

How to Salsa in Sari & All the Pretty Horses

Guess which one I had to read for school?

Guess which one I read in less than one day? Guess which one I liked more?

How to Salsa in Sari By Dona Sarkar is a YA book that I totally checked out because it had the word sari in the title, and I like books about other cultures, which is why I'm reading Beka Lamb, which is a book set in Belize. My English teacher wanted us to read Beka Lamb, but we didn't have time, but I'm still going to give it a shot.

I liked How to Salsa, so I don't have much to say, except like way to short, I want a sequel!!!!


I feel meh about All the Pretty Horses, and it's part of a trilogy and hell to the no, I'm not touching another one of Cormac McCarthy's books. Unless you paid me. I'd read James Joyce if somebody paid me. Gossip Girl. Everyone. Totally. Pay me.

I'm going home tomorrow! I have internet on my phone, which means I get picture and video mail, which means my mom sent me two videos of her talking to Dixie while Dixie barked! Oh, how I miss my baby girl!

All my finals are over, and I'm getting at least a B in Science! Because my professor was all, "If you're not out of the Honors section, you'll get a C+, otherwise something higher." I was so happy! Until I found out the paperwork had been sitting on a desk for a month. Just. Sitting. There. Keeping me in a honors class. So I'm still waiting. Called the registrar's office around 3, and they called back, and then said they'd call me again if they got the right signature before 4:30. No call. Gotta wait til morning. ::groan::

But this is all part of the most important lesson of college - speaking up, asking questions, building rapport to get your way for everything from a grilled cheese sandwich instead of something inedible to getting you out of a class a month before finals.

Case in point - this semester, there is a new bookstore off campus, but close by. I went there last week, with no book after going to the Tiger Bookstore and selling my History Book. (And maybe my Anthro? Or was that Friday? Damn, the days, they flow so quickly.) I had nothing to sell, but I asked some questions, got a card, and went on my merry, cold way.

Cut to Monday. The school bookstore took my English books and my French book, but not the CDs that go with the French book. And the Tiger Bookstore didn't want them either. The new place did, for $15. I paid $25 (normally $50, but I'd just sold something back) for them a year ago, and, since they're only going to be used another semester (new books), the guys there said the other bookstores might give me $5 or something. Whatever. Call me stupid about money and hopelessly young, but when I'm strung out by exams, all I want is the textbooks and associated paraphanalia gone, I don't care about how much you give me.

So today. It's pouring.

Oh, by the way, I overslept. My exam was at 10:30 and I woke up at 10. I seem determined to prove that living on campus is a damn good idea at least once a semester. Oh well, I think extra sleep is better for me than extra studying.

But pouring rain, just not letting up. That's why I'm still here. Last December, I went home on a drizzly day. Huge mistake, just because when it's wet you're just ugh. Tomorrow it'll be cold, but dry. And Becky will get some vegetarian sushi and get to drop off some scholarship thing.

So the school bookstore didn't want my science book.

And neither did the Tiger bookstore.

So I started walking to the other one, the exact same way I did yesterday. Well, some of these roads are old and dippy. And they fill up fast. Walking back to campus, I took a different route with somewhat shallower puddles, but my butt was already wet and I'd left my backpack open (though with just a sealed pack of pencils and such inside it) on the walk to the healthcenter for a flu shot. I did use my umbrella from time to time today. And I wore flip-flops, which was probably a good thing in all those puddles - at least I don't have to wait for my tennies to dry out. Stinky.

Anyways, I show up at this place, and the guys that work there smile, cuz they remember me and they're new and I was there yesterday and I know they're probably not going to take my science book, but dammit, both semesters, I have had all my books bought back and I'm not breaking my record. I told them I was soaked and miserable, it wasn't about the money, it was about getting rid of the book and the class, could they please take it? I got $10. Sweet. And my legs appear no worse for the midday soaking.

My first semester, I called the campus bookstore about one of my textbooks and a guy said they'd buy back a book. When I got there, the answer was no. Same at Tiger. Found the guy, they bought the book. I am learning things.

Also, this song, Mera Babu Chhail Chhabila by Sophie, is awesome.




One last tip - if your roommate flies the coop, make sure she takes her food-related garbage with her and/or her dirty dishes, or you'll get fruit flies and think you're going crazy. Or at least I did.

And I offer a hearty "Thank you" to every driver who did not splash me today and an even heartier "Fuck you!" to the one who did.

See, anything original I came up with went into my finals...

so this is what you get.


But Fantastic That You're Keeping That Cultural Reference Alive
History professor, lecturing on the early 1900s: I mean, the problem of being the only person with a telephone is, well, who you gonna call?
Class, as one: Ghostbusters!
History professor: You kids scare me.

CU
Boulder, Colorado

Overheard by: They know their history, alright

via Overheard Everywhere, Dec 7, 2008

Also, links to more B/K/Tollywood songs. But you knew that, right?

I have never seen that movie, but I still laughed out loud. Like srsly.

Procrastinating studying for French final... the subjunctive tense can kiss my ass after 10 tomorrow, except I'll need it to drag it back out in like a month, god, the Christmas break is too short, but it's still longer than my sister's!

"That was grammatically correct but morally wrong."

My French teacher told me that today and it's just making me laugh. (Plus, I like his accent.)


I played phone tag with the doctor's office for two days just to get to find out it was about nothing important (to me) at least. Later on, I found out that if I tell them anything, well, they'll change my meds to try to fix it! They don't just want status reports for the hell of it!

As for the real problem, TMI city.

Dr. Dude's answer to this problem has been to increase a medication. Well, it's been increased for about two months now, and the problem isn't as bad, but it's not gone. So Tuesday, the doctor says that I should drop down to one a day.

Cue instant reaction and pain.

I thought that was what the the phone tag was all about.

On Wednesday, at 5:15pm, I got a phone call from someone at the doctor's office after they closed asking me to call my doctor's nurse the next day. I did, and asked her not to call between 10 & 11. She called at 10:30. I called her back, leaving a message asking again not to call between 1 and 2:30 and this time she listened and they were just busy, so she never got to call me. Meanwhile I'm screaming in pain.

The call finally comes and it's about something that is a mild irritant at worse and NOTHING when compared to the issues that have cropped up, issues they knew about, since I called every day.

But I got that quote out of it.


More school related thoughts, though don't ask me how I got from here to there, because it gives me a headache to recreate my own thought process.

My anthropology teacher likes Bollywood. Dude! And she gets most of her Bolly-fix through Netflix and *other* channels, and that got me thinking I have got to get off my ass and get a Netflix account - the one at a time deal, unlimited checkouts per month.

I've discovered I'm comfortable watching movies and recorded tv on my laptop, and it's just not cost effective to use the library (or buy every movie) anymore. It's only $2 a rental, sure, and if you get it on Thursday, you can stretch a 3 day rental into four, since they're not open on Sundays! Money in your pocket, baby!

The library has some awesome movies outside of the mainstream - Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay!, Monsoon Wedding, Bollywood/Hollywood, and a number of regular hollywood films I've been curious about.
(Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - loved it. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - loved it. Boys Don't Cry - loved it, but it's like the Virgin Suicides. I can't see it that often. I also saw Marie Antoinette this semester, but that was from my roommate's collection. Last year's roommate's collection library yielded The Devil Wears Prada, which sucks compared to the book, except when it comes to the visuals.)

One branch has the film Saawariya, which isn't quite Bollywood, as a Hollywood distribution thingie was involved. Of course, the sentence after that calls it Bollywood.

The thing is, this branch isn't close to me and I don't drive. So I have to go to that library to get that movie if I want to watch it, though I can still turn it in close by. Or I can wait until it can be shipped between libraries.

Of course, Om Shanti Om also came out in 2007, and I don't know the library doesn't have it. The fact that it is Bollywood? That its soundtrack kicks ass and its plot is gloriously convoluted?

And here's the final thoughts that led me to post again instead of ignoring this blog until a cute lolcat caught my eye.

I spent the night before my first test in science this semester listening repeatedly to the song Deewangi Deewangi from Om Shanti Om. It was so hyper it became relaxing. (And the video is part of the coolness, even though I recognize about 5 of those people.)



This technique did not help the studying; I got a C.

Would it have helped if I'd have listened to something more inspirational sounding like this (Aashaayen from 2005's Iqbal)?



Discuss.

So I'm procrastinating...

And I decide to see how my county voted.

We voted for Obama, baby! 63%!

Shelby County is one of six in Tennesse that went for Obama this year.

But what's more depressing is the numbers for my state and my county.

253,633 people in Shelby County voted for Barack Obama.

Less than 400,000 people voted. The wikipedia says our population is just under 900,000. I think we have a few more eligible voters than that.

And the state is worse!

1,093,213 voted for Barack Obama in the entire state, and 1,487,564 voted for McCain. 33,228 voted for "others". (I'm using google maps, so I don't have a decent link.)

Less than three million people voted across the state! Again, that's less than half of our population, according to wikipedia.

What the fuck?

Of course, one can only hope that Tennesseans decided to vote in a completely different manner from the rest of the country and ignored the top and voted for local office and propositions, so more people did vote.

We aren't a swing state, so we didn't get attention, so why bother voting?

Obama supporters could have said the state always goes red, so why bother? And McCain ones could have said the same thing, thinking he had it in the bag. Or they could have realized he wasn't going to win and decided not to vote.

I don't know why people don't vote, since I did. ::smug::

::not so smug::

Damn, my paper is still not done!

White Noise by Don DeLillo

Finally, a book review. I just checked out this book The Wedding Cake in the Middle of the Road: 23 Variations on a Theme from the library and decided not to read it, so I can't review it and no one can make me read it. (I ordered it a few weeks ago for one reason or another, this happens all the time, but hey, it's free.)

Now, I did not have to read White Noise, since I was part of the group doing the first book (The Handmaid's Tale, which I love), so I didn't have to lead the discussion or look for reviews or anything but discuss it in class.

But I'm a stickler. So I read it. I finally finished Wednesday night, and it was my first feeling of satisfaction associated with the book - I'm done!

Even my professor agrees that this is not a book to sink into and enjoy. It is post-modern and you are supposed to know that and never forget it.

The plot has potential, but we never get a conclusion, and we never care because the characters aren't developed well. There is an "Airborne Toxic Event" and everyone is evacuated. And then the narrator, Jack, discovers that his wife has been taking a medication, Dylar, that is supposed to suppress the fear of death. And she's been sleeping with somebody to get it, since she couldn't get it through the trial study of the drug.

The book has one thing going for it for those assigned it - it is very easy to read, it just slides right through, so it can be quick and painless. (Say, compared to assigned James Joyce.)

I've read a few negative reviews at Amazon (what, I like to see my opinion restated again and again sometimes) and a few people said that the children talk like adults. It's true, they do. The children say wrong things and believe they're right, as do the adults. And there are some conversations where I just could not tell who was talking.

The book is not meant to be read for fun. While you may identify, at times, with the characters, you rarely empathize with them. The setting is meagerly set up, besides the sunsets. (which, of course, represent death. Everything does in this book.)

Next up is All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. I'm a little nervous because I have some problems with comprehending written violence, since shoot-outs are chaotic and the final printed word is not. It trips me up a bit, in most instances.

In History, I'm reading Confederates in the Attic and it is a great book. The only problem is it was written in the mid-90s, and I am really curious to see how September 11th and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have shaped the views of the people in the book.

I really love this comic, though I don't know why.

Here's the link. Using the code provided gave me a too-wide picture, and despite being 20, I don't know how to fix something like that. (Though I have an inkling - move my sidebar to the other side?)

I saw it at The Daily Comics Review.

I've seen Diesel Sweeties around, but I've never really followed it. In looking for the official link (this is from the 23rd), I saw a few that made me smile, so I guess it's good.

In print, I don't usually love love Mutts shelter spotlights because of the guilt, but the rock theme is too cute to resist.

Elvis was okay, because I'm not a huge Elvis fan.

Monday the 3rd:


Tuesday the 4th:


Wednesday the 5th started the laughter:


Thursday and Friday speak for themselves:





Though I'm sorry to say today's just confused me (but I know I should include it anyway):

If you want a dog, consider a shelter one. And if you can't afford (another) one, there's always a need for donations - time, money, materials.

To leave on a happy note, here's an Indian pop song sung by Alka Yagnik:

I really should go to sleep...

This is so cute and silly.


see more puppies


Here's a bit of sleepy thinking - right before starting this, I looked down to see how late old party college girl was staying up and the computer clock said it was 1:01.

Odd.

I distinctly remember seeing 1:30 something on my alarm clock.

Oh! Clock change thing.

Yesterday (Friday), my friend Megan had on these half sleeves that started above the elbows and went down, and I told her they were cool. Then she stood up and put her wings on.

Huh?

Oh. Halloween. I told her I'd forget and remember that it was Halloween all day.

I saw a few people in costume, but outside of candy and less than twenty minutes of The Mothman Prophecies in Anthropology, nothing else Halloween came up. Wasn't even mentioned in French, like what are some French Halloween practices? (I did, however, try to convince my professor that he should cancel class as a Halloween treat. The door was locked and class was delayed like FIVE MINUTES. Awful.)

Halloween lost its appeal when I stopped trick-or-treating. Of course, there are Halloween parties, but I'm not a party person. I'm even awkward at my own.

Mikey clone spotted on the interwebs!

see more puppies

Dude!


more animals

This is just silly.

Some noteworthy nonsense

I missed History last Thursday because I was asleep. I decided to skip the lab after my science class and sleep (I barely remember the lecture before that - I kept nodding off). I planned on waking up 30 minutes before my history class to see if I felt more awake.

So I set my alarm for 1:30.

The class starts at one.

So I went back to sleep. I ended up sleeping almost 7 hours. My body didn't want fall break to be over - four days including the weekend. (Great for those with weekend classes, but it was just an excuse to close everything on campus on Saturday and Sunday.)

I e-mailed my History teacher, and she said I should get the notes from somebody. I planned to do that when we got the study guide for next Thursday's test, so I would know what to look for.

This girl who sits behind me in science also sits near me in history. Today, I asked if I could borrow her notes or something along those lines. We also have lab together, so I asked her to decipher her handwriting before lab started officially. She didn't give me her e-mail address and probably figured I knew her name. And I was going to give her her notes in history.

History was cancelled today.

I dithered around, taking notes from her notes for about 30 minutes (finished before one, ha!) and telling people class was cancelled. I decided to wait to see if she would come up, but after fifteen minutes when no one came, I said forget it.

I decided to e-mail her. My history teacher has the habit of e-mailing all our addresses instead of just the class name. Unfortunately, my science prof and lab teacher don't, so I couldn't cross-reference to narrow down the e-mail addresses.

I e-mailed every girl in the class, or at least everyone with a potentially female name. (Jesse, for one.) Except one.

She sat next to me in the computer lab and asked if she could copy my notes, since she missed a day, blah blah blah. She was the second one to ask, but the first guy said he couldn't handle my handwriting. But we exchanged phone numbers so I can get my notebook back before one p.m. Tuesday.

I really hope she texts me this evening - my history notes are in a notebook with my anthropology notes, and guess what I have first thing tomorrow morning?

But it's not all nonsense.

I got an A on my science test! I got a 73 on the first one. I now know how to study for these tests, and this class won't kill me. What will kill me is this glitch. Last time, I counted what I missed when he went over the questions and I missed one less than I'd been given credit for. And so did just about everybody else.

It happened again. And I got the topo lab back today and it's a 95. Sweet!

Three things I know

One - Foxes are cute.

Two - Firefox 3 is pretty cool, except for the whole crashing thing. At least I can restore everything a second later. I thought crashes were supposed to take you know, time. Not just be a ten second irritant. (Though nothing tops Windows, which told me Windows Media Player stopped working right when after I closed it. Brilliant!)

Three - These are adorable!











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This song is driving me mad.

What do I know about this song?

I know that I like it. A lot.

I also know that it is a "sweet song," according to "darudarling" who last logged on a month ago.

It is labeled as a Rajasthani song and the tags are "country," "folk," "world," "music," and "alternative."

There is one comment. (Mine.) However, there are 2 ratings. I know one is mine, and I wouldn't be surprised if the other is well.

None of the related videos are the same song.

Search for the title? Ha! Ayo and Re are very common, and I don't even know if this is the actual title. This has happened a few times, but there are comments correcting the title or related videos that feature the correct title. Oh, I've watched the related videos of similar length, for nothing.

There are clues in the video itself. Starting at 6:48 are credits! In a language I can't read, let alone identify! (Hindi? Arabic? Telugu? Tamil? I know it's not Hebrew.)

So. I doubt anyone reads this thing but me, but on the off chance an expert on Rajasthani music comes by, I'm putting this out there. The last time I asked for help, nothing. I found the book on my own and ordered it ASAP. It's Erasure by Percival Everett, who I had the good luck to meet last semester.

How'd I find it? In a book I got on an impulse at Barnes & Noble one day called Making Friends with Black People by the comedian Nick Adams. It's pretty funny, and it wasn't actually the first time I'd read the book, but when I got to the part where he mentioned black authors. (Forgive me, Mr. Adams. I read it about a year ago and there have been many books since then.) I googled them, and was browsing Percival Everett's wikipedia page when Erasure jumped out at me.

The first time I read the book, it was a library book. Still have no idea why, but why question the results? Unfortunately, it is no longer at the library.

One last bit about the book - I read it over a weekend with the flu. I'd been planning to read the book, and I blazed through it at a speed that still amazes me considering the haze I was in the day before. The narrator is just at the edge of sanity, making the book kinda trippy. So reading while sick with the flu upped the insanity quotient. I hope my next reading will be as trippy. Oh, it's not a book you read more than once a year or so, it's too bleak at times, especially the ending to read too often, especially if you're prone to depression. (Like me.)

So. Erasure by Percival Everett is an amazing book.

And I still don't know enough about this song!

Help!

Thank you.

I don't know what this says about me, or my life,

but I saw this and my jaw dropped.


more animals

I can't resist some MAD references, you know?



Back in the real world, it's fall break. And it has been for almost 12 hours. Oh I partied heartily with this week's America's Next Top Model and a rerun of Good Eats about celery.

I think I need to reign it in. After all, fall break is only four days. And Saturday and Sunday count as part of the break, so everything's closed on campus. Wee!

Two silly lolcats.

Not that there are any serious ones, but still.




more animals

Of course, I couldn't go to the library today because it's raining raining raining was that thunder?


BUT BUT BUT BUT!

I got my Shahrukh Khan shirts from Cafepress and they fit! Eeee! Now I get to confuse people all over the Memphis area, and if I don't, I've found a new friend.

I am quite happy.

No, no, I will not acknowledge that I have a quiz tomorrow!

God, I love the South.

Delores Gresham is running for state senate here in Tennessee.

She's a Republican. I think. That's the south for you!


Anyways, I heard the ad before I looked at it. The caption said "Married to Will: 39 years" or something to that effect.


And then there's a shot of her and maybe her adult children and her husband striding across a field, all toting their hunting guns. The voice-over says something about traditional values, while the caption says "Protect the NRA and Right-to-Life." (Or something to that effect. I'm not searching for the ad!)

Guns and babies. What could be more American than that duo?

What is the purpose of a prayer box on your door?

So we're kinda sorta encouraged to decorate the door to our rooms.

I haven't done it, but the most common decoration is a dry erase board.

This year, two girls have more hot guys than door. (Including Johnny Depp.) There are so many pictures people stop and stare. And they're right by the stairs, so you have to walk around the people...

And then a girl put up a piece of paper with a quote from the Bible - Luke, Chapter 11 verses 11-13, which says, "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

Underneath this is a prayer box. Apparently, because God will give us good things, we should leave a prayer in this box.

But then my suitemates put one up (we share a bathroom). With a dry erase board and pad of paper on the door. I was well, whatever about it.

Until they wrote "Please leave your name along with your prayer. Thank you & God Bless."

When I saw that, I wrote "Why?" on the dry erase board. (Anonymously, of course.) This was soon erased by somebody offering to help with hair.

I don't get this. Why have a prayer box on your door? Are you going to read these? I thought prayer was a private thing. What will they do with the prayers? I'm really confused by this.

No matter how low my mood gets,

I can still find a way to laugh.





Or drool:



His abs are almost painful to look at. Can you believe the man is 42? And married? And has been since '91? Damn the luck.


You think my science prof would accept a "SRK IS HOT" for all my answers tomorrow? Or perhaps a "why is the rum gone?"

I never hated science until college. So this semester it's a friggin HONORS class. Stupid, right, if I hate it? I figured the class would be smaller and I'd get more one-on-one time with the teacher if I needed it. Well, that's kinda true. The professor is so much nicer and easier to approach than the one I had this spring! But the Honors course? A section of the class. 15-16 of us, I forget. Our big Honors assignment, what makes this Honors? A 5 page paper due in November. It needs to be you know, decent, but the main thing is writing it. At least I get to write about Iceland, which is always good.

Other classes? I love English. We've got a journal assignment due every day (we meet 3 times a week) and so far I'm doing great, I got a smiley face and a lol on my last one. When my brain feels bashed and tossed around by igneous rocks, I can just pull those out and feel better.

Or watch this:

A brilliant statement from the local news

Okay, today I saw three news vehicles on campus around 1:45 by the Panhellenic Building.

I don't know about anything important going on there today, and when I checked the three channels' websites, there was nothing there.

So after Jeopardy, I decided to keep it on channel 3 (CBS) to see why they're on my campus. (The last time was when Taylor Bradford was shot. So I'm leery. Plus, local news is incredibly stupid.

Watching the last 30 minutes has only increased my disdain.

First, I saw a teaser for high heels for babies. Babies who crawl!

Did you know we have a pumpkin shortage? Apparently, the bees who were supposed to pollinate the pumpkins were scared off by the thunder.

Another pumpkin story followed, about a pumpkin carving contest in Washington. The anchoridiot said this: "It looks like a scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, only the victims are pumpkins and it's not in Texas."

No.

Really.

And I still don't know why they were on my campus!


ETA: One of the teasers just now said we didn't know how distracting texting and driving was. After the bit about David Blaine, so they segued from his dangerous stunt to the danger of texting and driving. Do they get paid to state the obvious?

Oh. There's a study out about the dangers of texting and driving. Apparently it's a bad idea. Who knew?

Is this why they were on campus? To talk to young drivers? If that's the case, I don't think three would be out here.

The Virgin Suicides

I don't remember where I saw the title recently, or why I decided to read it for the first time.

It is a fantastic book, and the movie is equally amazing.

I can't say why it's good, I wish it sucked, so I could rant about that.

Despite their awesomeness, I don't think I'll be reading or watching it more than once a year or so. It definitely changes your mood, and when you're on edge and having some mood swings, well, I wasn't suicidal, but it didn't make me feel chipper.

I do have one minor quibble with the movie, and maybe this will spoil it, but I don't think so.

When the boys come over to the house to see the girls, in the book, Lux is sitting in a beanbag chair, all folded into herself and low to the ground. And all they could see was the lit end of her cigarette. Also, they went into the house. In the movie, she was smoking, but sitting on the couch, not facing them. She opened the door and let them in.

The visual of her in the beanbag is so striking, I wish it had been in the movie.

Other than that, it rocks.

I also watched Bollywood/Hollywood this weekend, and it was pretty decent. I liked 2 of the songs enough to download them, and the rest were good.

However, I watched the "Described Version" of the movie. (I checked out both movies from the library. I could only have them for 3 days and they cost $2 each. But I didn't have to sign up for anything new.)

There was braille on the top of the cover, over the name of the movie. I thought, "Cool, they're helping the blind." And the repetition of "described version" seemed weird. Don't all DVD cases describe the movie?

Also, it was a Canadian film, so I knew it would be weird.

The "described version" of a film is the version for the blind. There is a narrator, describing every action. "He dies," the voice says, as the man dies. For the whole movie. They described the dance moves. Very surreal. And read the credits, but not all, as it said on the back of the case.

I almost didn't watch it, but it wasn't as intrusive or weird as large print is to me. Plus, I didn't want to buy the movie, I just wanted to watch it.

Definitely a surreal experience.

An amazing cover of a Bollywood song.

Falak Tak is a song from the movie Tashan. Tashan gave us Dil Dance Marre, a good, fast, addictive song. That's the one I came across first, before deciding to look up the rest of Tashan's soundtrack.

I heard the cover before I heard the original.

The cover continues to blow me away, so here it is - Falak Tak, as sung by Shromona Mukherjee:



In the info on the page, she says it doesn't sound right without a male voice. I disagree. It sounds fine - the clarity and beauty of her voice amaze me every time I hear it, and I only wish I could download it and play it alongside the original.

I am in love with this dress.

I just checked out the book Best Dressed, which has pictures and descriptions of some the exhibits from the show Best Dressed: 250 Years of Style, which was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1998.

This one is from the "Egyptomania" page in the book. It was made in 1923.

A few of the other dresses don't look incredibly old and dated as well, but this one. Wow. I'd wear that if I could. Everything is perfect about it - the loose sleeves, the colors, the shape.

I spent most of the summer looking for a decent informal summer type dress. I found two okay ones, but this is it. Even with sleeves.

BEARS!

When I first saw this picture, it was being used as the wallpaper on the computer, centered on a black background. I thought it was a professional picture.

My sister took this in New Mexico in early April (I wasn't missing school) and I love it. No, I don't know who those two kids are.

Yeah. See, beck asked me if I'd mentioned this here, since I love it so much, and well, I didn't have a good excuse not to. So here it is.

Stupid commercials

The summer heat is making me slow and stupid. I could not, for the life of me, figure out why there commercials asking me to elect Steve Cohen.

He just won, says my brain.

This week, it finally hit me. He's in the House. He has to be elected every 2 years, and hey, this is connected to that there presidential race they keep going on about on the Daily Show!

Yeah, I'm an Honors student. In college. I must be passing because I'm a liberal, there's no other explanation.

Anyways, like all representatives, Cohen has an opponent - Nikki Tinker. She's had two commercials attacking his voting record. One asked why didn't he vote to change a park name and used KKK footage. It's the south.

But the second, god, the second. I actually shouted at the TV, "YOU'RE A DEMOCRAT! ACT LIKE ONE!"

Apparently, Steve Cohen voted against something that would allow prayer in school. And this is a bad thing because we're in the south. Nevermind that you can pray in school all damn day, you just can't make others do so.

But the icing on the cake was the prayer recited throughout the commercial. It's the "Now I lay me down to sleep" one. I thought the kid was going to die because of the vote.

There was an ad for a Republican running up north and until I googled her, I wasn't sure what party she belonged to - pro-gun, pro-family, pro-life. Well, it's the South.

Today's Sally Forth...

I hope I'm not hallucinating. It is 2 something in the morning.

But damn!

This rules:



However, we all have our own bowling alleys now, thanks to the Wii.

Without the league nights.

Oh man oh man oh man

My Cage mentioned Arrested Development!

The Colbert Report and Daily Show have showed up before, which is okay, but those are very popular shows.

AD? Not so much!

My Cage is cool for another reason and that is the platypus star. I've had a stuffed platypus since I was like 2. Puffy went to the hospital with me, and Puffy went to college as well.

Today's Curtis is funny.

In the funny because it's true.

I'm glad I read it at it one something in the morning. 12 hours from now, and, well, I wouldn't be posting.

I use the heat as an excuse all the time for why I said or did something so stupid. Plus, I think it's why school is so terrifying - we think of the next year with our heat addled brains.

It is too hot for most things, but I've been walking the dogs more often, even when the sun is out. Sure, it's hot. Sure, the shower dries me off. But I control the exposure. I get something from it. I'm doing something. That's better than sitting in traffic any day.

Sadly, it is not too hot for my sister and I to argue.

I'm in love with contradictions.

Recently, I discovered Spongebob Squarepants. I love it, I think it's funnier than some other shows I've suffered through.

That being said, I will watch Hannah Montana if nothing else is on. However, there is no justification that can be made besides "it makes me laugh sometimes". However, they mix up their stereotypes. They're from Tennessee, and yet Jackson went to school on his first day in Malibu in a cowboy outfit. There are rodeos here, but still. Now, a hunting outfit is a Tennessee stereotype.

The contradictions of my brain became apparent yesterday as I watched Phil of the Future (hilarious and good), followed by an hour of Spongebob.

While reading the graphic adaptation of Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire.

Seriously.


Of course, this is not the first time that the contradictions of my personality have shown themselves in such obvious ways.

Right after I got my eyebrow pierced, I went next door and bought a bunch of Archie comics.

Early this spring, I finished a paper and then went outside and blew bubbles. Before going to see an amazing speaker on race.

After my graduation ceremony, I bought a bunch of MAD magazines at an antique store. While dressed up. At the party later on, we had a piñata.

Eek, Recess is on! Ssh!

A post a little bit cleaner, but no less disturbing.

2010 is less then 2 years away. Oh man, it's just less than eighteen months away!

How does this happen?

I was doing my civic duty yesterday by bringing in the mail. A harmless endeavor, usually. Oh sure the heat made me make camp half way across the front yard, but that's normal.

What wasn't normal was the mail. My sister got a magazine in the mail. That happens on a regular basis, almost monthly, I'd say, but I can't be certain.

I was curious to see when her subscription expired, as I have been ever since I realized that the expiration month was on the address label. Hers ended in January 2010. "Wow, that's a long way off," I thought, before looking at the date on the magazine, August 2008.

There was much screaming afterwards, which I assume came from the magazine. All I know is I awoke five hours later surrounded by my old calendars.

Thanks a lot, internet!

I've been away from the internet since the 19th. That wasn't the plan. The plan was I would use someone's wireless internet, only it never worked. Oh, I got on the laptop a few times to look things up and make sure my e-mail wasn't completely out of control, but still.

And today, I got around to checking out Francesco Explains It All. (He does the writing for Sally Forth.) I haven't read all the posts yet, but this one made me do something I will regret for a long time: I looked up my name in the Urban Dictionary. Two of the entries were flattering and practically identical, but the other two were creepy.

Not to mention they don't make sense - how can I be hot two times over, but also be a vaginal sore and red colored jello induced flatulence.

Now I'm going to look up my sister's name.

She's a hot chick, but she's also a man who pretends to be a girl to hook up with lesbians. Online, of course. In addition to sounding like a chipmunk and looking like a transvestite. Someone got dumped by a Rebecca.

God, the urban dictionary is weird.

My poor mom is slang for penis.

I looked up our last name, but I kind of already knew what to expect.

And last but not least, my blog's name. Nothing creepy about it. A good time to stop doing this.

Uplifting Scene from The Shawshank Redemption

Great movie.

Inside Man trailer

This movie rocks rocks rocks!

Since I last posted here, I have seen the movie again, along with Bride & Prejudice and Water. Both were very good, but Water had a better soundtrack. And Water, despite being in Hindi and having A.R.. Rahman's name attached, is not a Bollywood movie like I thought. It premiered in Toronto, for one. For another, the amazing songs are never sung by the characters, they play in the background. Like a western drama. So I'm still awaiting Dil Se from Amazon to see a real Bollywood movie. Bride & Prejudice is a musical, it is brightly colored, and very energetic. Back to Inside Man.

I watched it yesterday morning. I remember loving it when I saw it when it came out, but sometimes that love doesn't last. But I was right. It's awesome. There are plot holes, according to most reviews and the message board at its IMDb page. Ignore the chatter.

The holes don't matter and definitely do not detract from the enjoyment of the movie.

Take what the characters say at their word about the events in the movie and enjoy it.

I like Bollywood music.

Perhaps you've noticed the new music links way down there?

Giving my recent computer problems, I'm quite grateful for that list.


It started with this song.

Chiayya Chiayya was featured in the movie Inside Man, at the beginning, setting the tone for a kick ass movie. (That I really want to see again.)

For a long time, CC was the only Bollywood song I listened to - after all, I don't know Hindi. (Or Tamil, but the Kollywood songs came later.)

But I explored youtube, checking out the other songs from the movie - like Dil Se Re.

My love for the music grew slowly until (I believe) the spring semester, when it just exploded. I now have 71 Bollywood and Kollywood songs in my favorites. (All youtube videos - the internet rocks!)

I still like songs in English, who doesn't? But when I'm on the computer or doing chores, it's Bollywood.

With one exception that I put in the Bollywood links folder - Summer Wine by Ville Valo and Natalia Avelon with scenes from Dil Se. This person also made a video for that cheesetastic classic I'm Too Sexy featuring Shahrukh Khan. (And yes, he is sexy.)

However, I'm the only one in my family who likes it or any non-English music. My mom likes the 12 Girls Band, and that's about it.

My sister said I'm the only one in the world who likes this music, but that's not true. She can't even be happy that I'm listening to newer music! (Though I still love the Beatles.) She says I like weird music, but she likes er er er, weird music. I bought her the Juno soundtrack and she likes the vampire song. I used to send her Bollywood videos and she never gave me feedback. So I had to ask her face-to-face what she thought of them. She likes music she can understand. Fine.

As to why I like it - I don't know. I can't say why I like any music.

However, I found a great quote about foreign music this weekend from Steve Hochman at Spinner, and it fits.

Sure, not understanding something can be a barrier to enjoyment. But at times it seems it can also be an enhancement. There's something in the purity of sounds, something that changes when meaning is assigned to them, whether the real, literal meaning or the Buffalax treatment. And there is certainly a lure of the exotic, enhanced by a sense of true foreignness. Listening to some French pop recently spurred the question as to whether the same thing in English would be just kind of average, while in a breathy en Français chanteuse delivery it's sexy and romantic. Frankly, it's a lure that's not just a matter of the verbal language but musical too.

Of course, there's also a snob factor. "Oh, you listen to songs in English. How cute. I appreciate the finer things in life." But that's not my motivation, I swear! I like the music because I like it. I should also note that I don't love every song in Hindi - there's variety, they're not identical or anything.

I really wanted to put a video in this post, but I can't pick one (or even 2)!

Okay, this one rocks:



And so does this one:



And this one:




Last video, I swear. Many videos feature groups, and it would rock if someone put this one on at a party or dance and everyone started dancing instead of Thriller or something else.



One last thing about the movies themselves - I've never seen one. I haven't seen Bride & Prejudice. However, I recently ordered the movie Dil Se from Amazon, and I can't wait to see it. (Bollywood movies are also at Netflix! How cool is that?)



ETA: More thoughts on the quote from Hochman. I agree that singing the direct English translation of a foreign song would probably suck. I mean, what sounds better musically - "Yeh Ladki Hai Deewana" or "The Boy Is Crazy"? (At least I think that's what it means - it's what the subtitles say.)

But I love translations of some English songs - especially the ones from animated musicals (Disney and Dreamworks). I love the French version of "Colors of the Wind" and the Hebrew and French versions of songs from the Prince of Egypt. These are great songs to begin with, and they sound great in another language. Not just French and Hebrew - there are many different languages available for most Disney songs. (At least on youtube!)

Wickett and His Legs

Right after I took this picture, the yapping began.

I'm glad that I can see what he's doing with his legs.

If the picture was bad, there would be much head exploding and bitchiness. I already snapped at my mom for referring to the issue as "cyber" something, when the internet wasn't involved in any way. Though it's involved now.

We got a new digital camera probably long enough ago that it is no longer new. But it is to me.

I took that picture, and I was like, man, I want that on my computer and blog.

I plugged the camera in and all hell broke loose.

First, there was a box saying there may be errors, do you want to scan this device? I said no.

I had no idea what option to choose to upload the picture, since I didn't want all the pictures to upload. So I chose the view option. They opened up in Windows Media Player, and the first one was text that said this file couldn't be shown. But clicking on the arrows led me to pictures that could. Month old pictures.

So I decided to go back, hoping to find mine as it was the last.

But no.

A month old video.

It started, I tried to hit stop, and it started skipping and making a horrible noise. I manually shut the computer down.

When I turned it back on, everything was default - all documents gone! I called tech support, and no, they weren't gone. Not that it mattered, all my school papers are saved online, and most of my pictures are at photobucket.

The worst part? The only reason I called tech support?

Firefox was back to the default! All my favorites were gone! At first, that's not a bad thing - every interesting website or video is on this blog. But I had a different favorites folder filled with random blog posts and websites I wanted to check out when I had time - like now, since school is over.

So I have no idea why it happened, or why my name, password, and userpic (for the computer) were saved.

But I'm never using that camera with my computer again - I'll just upload everything to photobucket!

The camera had more than 200 files on it. TWO HUNDRED PLUS. And some were music? The hell?

So that's it. The story of the picture.


ETA: Well, it's almost 1:30 on Saturday morning. I wanted to look something up I just saw in a book. Everything is back to default - the little clock and picture and news ticker thing that goes on the right hand side... ::sigh::

The worst part of the default setting? The default background.

It keeps telling me I can't save any of this, because I'm on a temporary account, though I logged in to my account. I'm going to blame Windows Vista. It hasn't been bad at all - the only thing annoying is the pop up asking me if I want to run a program... five seconds after clicking. But it never asked me if I wanted to delete the recycling bin, which I totally didn't want to do! (I did it twice.)

Oh well.

I'll call tech support again later today.

"Operation Deserter Storm"

Combines Iceland and the Daily Show, which is totally awesome. And made me laugh my ass off.

And now, here are the videos! (Oh, and Jason Jones. Not as hot as John Oliver, but still fine. Did you see him as a greaser last night?)

I know it's a bit late, but it's still hilarious.

Travis Childers won

Who?

Him, what with the pro-life and pro-gun liberal agenda that Barack Obama endorsed.

In addition to the ads in the older post, there was another one that made my head feel like exploding.

Well, I can't find it on Youtube. Let me listen to my music.

Aneeeeeeeeways, in the ad, Childers promises many things. Like not raising social security taxes. And not privatizing social security.

So how will it be paid for? Naturally, this is not answered in the ad.

But I can guess that it will be taxes. (Not that I'm opposed to that in the slightest.)

Grades

I got all As last semester, with one A+ (in French).

This semester was better and worse. I took 5 classes last semester, and 6 er, last, in spring. (My last day was May 1st.)

I got 5 As (2 A+s in French and my science lab) and one B. The B is in the science lecture course. That class has the distinction of being the first class I ever fell asleep in.

Rhymes With Orange made me laugh.

Here:


I am loving my first summer weekend.

I'm a bit lazier than usual - no walking to the Tiger Den to get some food - but there's no guilt, no worries, no assignments.

I have a worry doll. My sister got it for me in New Mexico. (It's from Guatemala - they have World Markets in Albuquerque!)

I used it every night in school. Friday night (er, Saturday morning), I slept in my bed for the first time since coming home. I picked up the worry doll and said, "I'm worried about the pain." Then I was like, wow. That's it. So I put the worry doll on my dresser. No need for it now!

This is so ugh.

Marry Him! by Lori Gottlieb

This is a disgusting, arrogant, and depressing article.

The author's a single mom who calls herself a feminist. She waited to get married, she held for her true love, but now she's wiser and knows she should settle. Not until the end of the article does she acknowledge her son again, in a good way, I guess.

And while I have a much higher tolerance for settling than I did back then, now I have my son to consider. It’s one thing to settle for a subpar mate; it’s quite another to settle for a subpar father figure for my child. So while there’s more incentive to settle now, there’s less willingness to settle too much, because that would be a disservice to my son.

Before that, this is what she has to say about her son (and dating):

Before I got pregnant, though, I also read single-mom books such as Choosing Single Motherhood: The Thinking Woman’s Guide, whose chapter titles “Can I Afford It?” and “Dealing With the Stress” seemed like realistic antidotes to the faux-empowering man-hunting manual headings like “A Little Lingerie Can Go a Long Way.” But the book’s author, Mikki Morrissette, held out a tantalizing carrot. In her introduction, she describes having a daughter on her own; then, she writes, a few years later and five months pregnant with her son, “I met a guy I fell in love with. He and my daughter were in the delivery room when my son was born in January 2004.” Each time I read about single women having babies on their own and thriving instead of settling for Mr. Wrong and hiring a divorce lawyer, I felt all jazzed and ready to go. At the time, I truly believed, “I can have it all—a baby now, my soul mate later!”

Well … ha! Hahahaha. And ha.

Just as the relationship books fail to mention what happens after you triumphantly land a husband (you actually have to live with each other), these single-mom books fail to mention that once you have a baby alone, not only do you age about 10 years in the first 10 months, but if you don’t have time to shower, eat, urinate in a timely manner, or even leave the house except for work, where you spend every waking moment that your child is at day care, there’s very little chance that a man—much less The One—is going to knock on your door and join that party.

They also gloss over the cost of dating as a single mom: the time and money spent on online dating (because there are no single men at toddler birthday parties); the babysitter tab for all those boring blind dates; and, most frustrating, hours spent away from your beloved child. Even women who settle but end up divorced might be in a better position than those of us who became mothers on our own, because many ex-wives get both child-support payments and a free night off when the kids go to Dad’s house for a sleepover. Never-married moms don’t get the night off. At the end of the evening, we rush home to pay the babysitter, make any houseguest tiptoe around and speak in a hushed voice, then wake up at 6 a.m. at the first cries of “Mommy!”

Try bringing a guy home to that.

No one forced you to have a kid.

I don't know why she had a kid as a single mom, but taken with her obsession with marriage, marriage, marriage, even if he's "rude to the waiter" she must think she's incomplete without both.

Another thing that bothered me:

and the theme of holding out for true love (whatever that is—look at the divorce rate)

It couldn't be because women got married young to someone they thought they loved, that they settled because they didn't want to be a spinster, no, all divorced couples were fools who thought they knew what love was! I'm sure there was love at first, but marrying someone you're crazy about doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up divorced. Especially if you take your time and don't settle into a marriage too soon. I know that, and I'm only 19!

Even women who settle but end up divorced might be in a better position than those of us who became mothers on our own, because many ex-wives get both child-support payments and a free night off when the kids go to Dad’s house for a sleepover.

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS WOMAN?

Marry a rich guy, no matter how bad he is, so that you can get a divorce and still be rich. The author doesn't want a partner, a lover, she wants a wallet. She wants a body.

My parents' divorce was not hard on my sister or me. But I know plenty of people who weren't so lucky. And if there's money involved, the divorce will be even nastier. She's living in a fantasy world.

Her descriptions of marriages is even more depressing:

The couples my friend and I saw at the park that summer were enviable but not because they seemed so in love—they were enviable because the husbands played with the kids for 20 minutes so their wives could eat lunch. In practice, my married friends with kids don’t spend that much time with their husbands anyway (between work and child care), and in many cases, their biggest complaint seems to be that they never see each other. So if you rarely see your husband—but he’s a decent guy who takes out the trash and sets up the baby gear, and he provides a second income that allows you to spend time with your child instead of working 60 hours a week to support a family on your own—how much does it matter whether the guy you marry is The One?

"You're never going to find 'the One' and you don't want to die alone, do you?"

She is obsessed with not being alone - never mind that she has a child, a child that loves her, a child that will be there for her forever.


One last thing, the bit that made me want to blog about this bullshit:

And all I can say is, if you say you’re not worried, either you’re in denial or you’re lying.

What are you supposed to be worried about? Being 30 and unmarried.

I've got about 10 years and 3 months until I'll be 30. I don't want to get married. I don't want kids. But I'm too young to know any better. I don't like being around little kids, but once I have one, I'll change.

As for marriage? I definitely don't want to settle! Settling sounds like marriage for marriage's sake only, being Mrs. Somebody is all that matters. I believe that that is what my dad did (though he didn't settle when he married my mom! She is so much better than him!) and he's on his 4th divorce. He's got 5 kids and only one kinda sorta likes him. He came from a broken home, and I guess he wanted to create the perfect one. He certainly tried with us - appearances, appearances.

The author knows what's best, and she knows that within 10 years, I will be baby and marriage crazy. Because her feelings are the same as everybody else's.

Settling is depressing, it is a reality, and it is sick to push it as the only alternative to dying alone.

I am glad I don't live in Mississippi.

Why?

There's an election coming up. Between Greg Davis, the Republican, and Travis Childers, the Democrat. Both are middle-aged white guys. Childers has the heavier southern accent.

I don't watch that much network TV, but the bits I do watch are often filled with their commercial fight.

I've seen the ads on Jeopardy while away, far far away in my dorm room. I came home Wednesday, but we were too late for Jeopardy. It happens.

Yesterday, we watched Jeopardy and an hour of Judge Judy. I had no idea how much I missed my mom's "judge shows"!

So many political ads.

There are 2 ads that drive me up the wall. They're done by the National Republican something.







The second one's not an ad, it's a news story about the ad.

Why is Childers responsible for what Barack Obama does? And what does it matter if conservatives can't trust him? He's the Democrat, they wouldn't vote for him anyway!


There are other pro-Davis/anti-Childers ads out there that do not attempt to smear him by saying, "If you elect Childers, women and black men will be in power. LIBERALS! He's a liberal!"

Anyways, the ads say things like he didn't pay his taxes or he doesn't care about the elderly.

Boring, right?

Well, there are ads like that on Childers' side as well, naturally. "Greg Davis did X, Y, Z. He won't be any good in Congress. I'll be better than him! Vote for me!"

Sadly, there have been no ads tying Davis to anyone but himself.

This is the latest Travis Childers ad (to me, anyway, I first saw it yesterday):


He doesn't say what party he is in. And watching that commercial, and only that commercial, would make you think he was the Republican. He's pro-life and pro-gun. He let me down, man, I wish he was as liberal as Barack Obama. The attack ads on Democrats always make me like them more - they're painted as liberals who support gay rights and abortions for all.

Then the response ad comes out and they deny it all. "I'm conservative in everything but name! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE vote for me!"

It bothers me a whole lot. There is a perfect, one word smear for Democrats, at least here: "liberal". There is nothing similar for Republicans. Every Congressional election feels like it's between two Republicans, going by the commercials.

Does the opposite happen in "blue" states? Do Republicans fall all over themselves to swear they're liberal? I doubt it.


I'm out of things to say, so I'll leave with this infamous Republican attack ad:



You do too have too many guns!